NSDC invests in SkillSonics: takes equity and offers debt to scale up the Swiss Vocational Model

DELHI, India - June 26, 2013 - PRLog -- : SkillSonics offers vocational courses designed in partnership with Swiss Vocational and Educational Training (VET) institutions, based on industry demand. SkillSonics has secured Rs 22.5 crore funding (equity and loan) from the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) towards accelerating to its target of training and certifying up to a million engineering technicians by 2022. SkillSonics is built on a successful pilot project commenced in 2009 that trained over 600 apprentices till now, in collaboration with Swiss vocational training institutions. SkillSonics plans to step up its presence to eight states, covering all the major engineering clusters across the country. Towards meeting these targets, SkillSonics will augment its manpower, to over 3000.

SkillSonics aims at addressing the severe shortage of skilled workmen across Indian industry, by creating a sustainable ecosystem that brings young Indians seeking a manufacturing vocation, the manufacturing industry and the Government together. The NSDC funding is an endorsement of this endeavour, and a significant step towards building this ecosystem through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that will help in creating employment opportunities and skills augmentation for industry certified to Swiss International Standards.

Despite an expected need for 40 million machinists (workers skilled in handling machines) and mechanics in 2020, India produces less than 2 million skilled, vocationally trained workers every year. This number constitutes only 2% of the total students in the age group 15-25, as compared to 80% in Europe and 60% in East Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The shortage of skilled labour both in terms of quantity and quality has reduced productivity and cut into the profitability of Indian enterprises.  

SkillSonics courses, designed in collaboration with Swissmem (Swiss Mechanical and Electrical Manufacturing Industries) and SFIVET (Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training), adapt world-renowned Swiss content and pedagogy to the Indian context. The apprentices spend only about 65% of the time doing course-work (mostly practical work and projects), leaving the remaining time to be spent on productive work on the shop floor or company-specific training. This helps the companies to benefit from immediate increase in productivity of entry-level technicians.

Courses are also offered to existing technicians that lead to continuous improvement of existing workforce. Candidates benefit through skilling at global skill levels and on the job orientation. During training, SkillSonics conducts rigorous assessments at regular intervals. At the end of the course, the apprentices take exams for the Indian National Apprenticeship and Swissmem Certification. The dual certification and rigorous assessment of demonstrated skills, teamwork ability and on-floor behavior greatly enhance the employability of these apprentices.

NSDC CEO & MD, Dilip Chenoy, welcomed SkillSonics as their partner in the mission to increase the strength of skilled workers in the Indian industry. “An estimated 12 million youth get added to the workforce every year and they need to be trained with relevant skills meeting industry demand to be employable. Currently, only 5% of India’s workforce receives any sort of formal training as against, say, 70% in Germany or 95% in South Korea. We need to scale up our training offerings both in terms of quantity and quality to make youth employable. In this light, we are very happy to work with SkillSonics that has introduced industry-led Swiss-quality vocational training in India“.

The Swiss Ambassador, His Excellency Dr. Linus von Castelmur said, “Partnership between NSDC and SkillSonics is a step towards further strengthening Indo-Swiss cooperation. SkillSonics is building on the pilot to implement the Swiss Vocational and Educational Training (VET) model in India on a self-sustainable basis. This funding will give them a boost in this direction. The Swiss VET model is a proven model and I am sure it will reap benefits in the Indian context especially in view of the country’s growing need for skilled labor.”

Speaking on the funding and partnership with NSDC, Mr. G P Chandra Kumar, Chairman and CEO, SkillSonics said, “We are very happy with the endorsement of our apprenticeship based, Industry Driven, Public Private partnership model by the NSDC. We believe that drastic steps must be taken to skill-up the Indian labour force, while enabling greater employment opportunities for the millions of educated unemployed youth. Moreover, there is a dire need to empower our industry to compete globally, which is possible only with internationally acceptable levels of skilled manpower. We are confident that we will be able to closely work with NSDC to scale up this ecosystem in India”.

“The Swiss VET model is credited to be the backbone of Switzerland’s thriving economy. SkillSonics is successfully adapting this model to India to create world-class technicians and globally competitive companies. NSDC’s support will help us in further strengthening our ecosystem approach to skilling, where all the stakeholders including government, industry and academia come together to address India’s skills gap sustainably“, Mr. Franz Probst, Co-Chairman, SkillSonics added.